Before the opening one-day international against Pakistan at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium Alastair Cook was asked about the isolated but persistent criticism from certain eminent former England players of both his captaincy and his abilities as a one-day player. Cook refused to budge – "They always talk about me" was about as animated as he got.

Perhaps it would have been better to ask the same question after his own career-high one-day contribution to a vital win. But then Cook was equally restrained in victory, clearly a master of the adage that if you can meet triumph and disaster with the same soft-pedalled set of media-trained stock answers you'll make a fine England cricket captain, my son. At least the argument now seems to have run its course. England's captain has just scored more runs – 137 – more quickly than either Pakistan or the rest of his team could muster on a slow-turning pitch of the type that historically flabbergasts his countrymen.

There are more pressing matters to tinker with, as indicated by Cook's suggestion that England would "take the positives" from Monday night, a rare interesting use of sport's No1 captain's cliche given that England had just won. But then the negatives were still fairly clear. His opening partner, Kevin Pietersen, produced an unusually flaccid innings, defying his promotion to Powerplay bully.

Given that he was dismissed again playing the "curtain-rail" defensive shot, there is even a school of thought that Pietersen should do what no batsman has ever done before and simply give up the forward defensive for now, treating opening the innings like a Twenty20 run chase and trying to score off every ball. At least he might get out in a more interesting fashion. Craig Kieswetter looked ill-equipped to play the role of innings-finisher, his reliance too heavy on one scoring area. And England did once again collapse in the middle, albeit this was masked by Cook's fine century and by Pakistan's surrender.

Then, of course, there were those positives. Steven Finn showed that he is a potent weapon with the white ball and just an injury away from filling a spot in the Test team. Moreover the way he dismissed Pakistan's top order, with at least one batsman beaten for pace under the lights, suggests this may be a chink that can be levered at further. Perhaps it is now Pakistan's batsmen who have a technical difficulty to iron out. Plus, there is some good news: the injured Jos Buttler, who might have been sent home, is staying with the tour in the hope the injury to the webbing of his right hand will heal in time to take part. Kieswetter may be the vulnerable party if he does.

Behind the obvious successes (which include Ravi Bopara, rusty after six weeks in the wings, but showing steel to go with his silk) there was Samit Patel, who dropped a catch in the deep but had another useful all-round game, scoring inventively at the end of the innings and continuing to take wickets with his dogged left-arm spin.

As ever Patel was asked about his weight and his fitness afterwards (presumably it was merely a slip of the tongue when he suggested he expected to have mastered both "in a few years") but for now he is an important part of this one-day team, bringing balance and also some fire. "I do like a bit of competition," Patel said, the day after a victory in which he was feistily prominent. "I like a bit of fight and a bit of grit about the game." The next challenge is to elevate himself to a position in the batting order his talent demands.